


No Matter How Small, You Ignite A Spark In Others

by Alitomy



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Gen, Tumblr Ask Box Fic, except its only 4 things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:40:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29085516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alitomy/pseuds/Alitomy
Summary: Four times the gang taught Booker something.And the one time he taught them.
Relationships: Booker | Sebastien le Livre & Everyone
Comments: 5
Kudos: 46





	No Matter How Small, You Ignite A Spark In Others

**Author's Note:**

> there may be a lot of italics in this one, bc i used them to distinguish whenever they werent speaking english... and they dont speak english in this xD

~  
1 - Russia, 1812

When they first found him in Russia, they barely understood one another and had to use Andromache’s passable French to communicate. The Asian woman beside her named Quynh stared at him, as if looking into his soul as he gasped out words of conversation as he recovered from another hypothermic shock. The two men were paired off, keeping a close eye on their surroundings and ignoring the conversation altogether as they did not understand. 

_”The first thing we will do,”_ Andy said, handing another wooly coat his way. _”Is teach you a language we can all speak.”_

 _”Like hell you will. I’m to return to my family,”_ he replied, wrapping the coat around him tighter. Andy shook her head and huffed, glancing at Quynh beside her. 

_”When you return in fifty years, when your family is dead, we will teach you Russian.”_

_”Or you could learn better French,”_ Booker snapped, cursing the entire world under his breath as his limbs shook uncontrollably. 

The corners of Andy’s lips curled upwards slightly. 

(Back then, Booker paid no mind to this. But now, he knew it was the introduction to Andy’s competitive side.)

It was thirty-eight years later when Booker returned. Andy had gotten better at French, and Booker grumbled at the fact that he now had to learn Russian, as per their unofficial agreement. 

He wasn’t half bad at Russian, but he wasn’t particularly good at it either.

~  
2 - Italy, 1850

As he returned to the group after the passing of his son, the last of his true family, Quynh pulled Booker aside and placed a bow in his hands. She watched as he pulled the bow string back slightly, testing the recoil of the weapon as if he was examining its limits. Booker was just trying to not break the thing. 

Quynh was scary, and Booker did not want to mess with her. 

_”Now aim at the target,”_ she had told him, nodding her head to the tree as she placed an arrow in his other hand. _“Aim, and fire.”_

Booker did as he was told. 

Booker missed the tree by a mile. 

Quynh tutted and put her hands on her hips, before taking another arrow out of the quiver on her back. 

_”Try again,”_ she said, almost encouragingly. _”We have time. I’ll make sure you can handle a bow almost as good as me.”_

Booker ended up being half as good as Quynh, which they both saw as an achievement. 

(He could never be as good at archery as Quynh, but it was the thought that counted at the time. Really, Booker should have been grateful for the distraction.)

~  
3 - Japan, 1894

Nicky was sitting at the kitchen table cleaning his sniper rifle when Booker walked in, still half asleep. Pausing in his tracks, Booker rubbed at his eyes and looked at the weapon on the table, never having really seen it out of its case which Nicky kept stored under his bed in their various safehouses. 

Nicky looked up at locked eyes with the youngest, beckoning him over to sit beside him. 

_”I will show you how to clean this, and then if you want, how to use it,”_ Nicky said, picking up the scope and rubbing the rag gently across the glass. Booker nodded and watched silently before Nicky handed him a part and a new rag. _”Gently, don’t rush or you may scratch the metal.”_

Booker wasn’t sure how a piece of cloth would scratch metal, but he dared not say. Nicky was allowing him into his space, to help clean his most prized possession. 

When the weapon was cleaned, Nicky showed Booker how to reassemble the rifle before picking it up and beckoning him outside. 

_”We will set up here, and I will teach you how to shoot,”_ Nicky explained as he set up the tripod that would hold the barrel steady. _”Come, look down the scope.”_

Booker could not see a thing, and Nicky gently nudged his head until he gasped, suddenly seeing the tin can in the distance. 

_”Now line it up, and shoot.”_

Booker missed, but Nicky’s eyes gleamed.

(It was something that Booker looked back on fondly as he sat in his French apartment surrounded by booze.)

~  
4 - Egypt, 1948

 _”Where is your sword, Booker?”_ Joe exclaimed whenever they were gearing up for a mission. Booker looked at him then the others, who all had a sword strapped to their bodies whereas he only had an assault rifle and a handgun. 

_”I.. Don’t have one?”_

Joe scoffed. _”I will change that. When we are done I will teach you how to wield a sword.”_

Booker objected, which fell upon dead ears as the team went back to gathering their gear. Furrowing his brow, Booker looked down at his assault rifle and started to feel anxious. Was knowing how to wield a sword some kind of necessity to be in this strange team of immortals? 

(He found out later, the next day in fact, when Joe had woken him up at the break of dawn with his scimitar in one hand and a longsword in the other. Joe was always the early riser, and the most energetic. Booker missed him the most.)

 _”Here, I will train you the art of the sword,”_ Joe smiled, but Booker could see the excitement shining through his eyes. _”Try to strike me.”_

Booker looked at him incredulously, but swung the blade at him. 

He ended up on his ass with Joe standing above him, scimitar pressed lightly on his throat. 

_”You take too big of a swing, leaves too much gap for the enemy to strike,”_ Joe explained, removing the weapon from Booker’s neck and holding a hand out to help him up. _”This will be fun. Bonding, if you will.”_

 _”Joe, no one even uses swords anymore?”_

Booker ended up on his ass again, in record time. 

~  
+1 - France, 2020

Booker hadn’t heard from them in six months, as per their non-contact rule, but he hadn’t expected a package to arrive at his front door with his alias on it. Curious, he placed his glass of water (which still tasted of whiskey from the night before) on the counter and picked up the box, setting it down on his kitchen table. 

He stared at it for a while, not sure what to make of it as he decided to rip open the box before he could change his mind. Inside were a bunch of letters each with his name written in different handwriting, a few pictures and five small magnets that represented each member of the team. 

Booker picked up the first letter from Andy, skimming through the words quickly before the tears fell on the paper and ruined it for good. 

_’...miss you Book…...Nile’s idea to……..considered your biological family……….struggling to cope……..should have listened to you more, and for that I’m so sorry. You taught me that there is more to life than what we do, and I should have seen that back in the 1800’s and not belittled you for it. I love you Book, see you soon.’_

Quynh’s letter was short as sweet, but mainly contained phrases in many languages calling him a dumbass and pictures of him practising with the bow. 

_’Next time, maybe try to be a perfect shot before you decide to cross us you moron…….I hope you have improved with your bow I gave you, oh wait you left it in England and some historian took it to the museum because it is so ancient…..You better get me my bow back you absolute- Nile has been reading over my shoulder this whole time and now I’m going to write some good things about you…_

_‘How to start? What is good about you, Booker? You reminded me that not everyone is good at something first go, and that they deserve the effort and time you put into them. You ended up being a good shot and it only took you ten years! The others took twice as long. We will have a competition when you return, so keep those archery skills sharp, my friend.’_

The next letter was from both Joe and Nicky, and Booker smiled softly to himself. Never to be separated, those two, and he was a fool to think otherwise. 

_’Nicky does not want to write you a letter, so I will write for both of us. This was Nile’s idea, sending you this little ‘care-package’ as she called it, but do not think this is an olive branch. We are grateful for you, Book, and since you turned up our lives have been somewhat exciting. Our separate and joint experiences in teaching you things has brought us both enjoyable memories, and though somewhat tainted by your actions, upon your return we would like to teach you more new things as we teach Nile. Maybe you might actually improve on your skills for once._

_We both love you dearly.’_

Booker sniffled and separated the picture enclosed within the letter. It was a capture of when Nicky was teaching him how to cook proper spaghetti bolognese, after he found out that Booker was using jar sauce and packet pasta. Booker remembered getting scolded all night in Italian, and when he told Nicky he understood, the response he got was _”Good. I should hope so."_

Nile didn’t write a letter, but she didn’t need to write one. They only knew each other for two weeks before shit hit the fan and Booker was sent away. Instead, in Nile’s envelope was a tiny slip of paper with a phone number on it, along with some fliers for activities to do around Paris.

_’Call me anytime, I’m here to chat. Also, don’t mope about for a hundred years, do something! Learn a new skill! (Okay, that might be hard but just do it, maybe bake some sourdough? You love that stuff!)’_

Booker took the magnets out of the box, walked over to his fridge and placed them in a circle with a small click!, his heart panging every time.

Bow and arrow, two swords, a labrys, and a handgun with a US flag.

**Author's Note:**

> its been a minute since my last post, i just had a night of nonstop writing for this fic and this is just how it turned out
> 
> follow me on tumblr: alit0my


End file.
